In Season: Eating Well in Winter

Despite what you think, true winter in the Pacific Northwest, at least as far as most of the country is concerned, is a fleeting thing. Yes, we may have a few freezes and snowstorms, but not like New England where snowplows—what are those, you might ask?—pile up banks of the stuff that last well into spring. And thank goodness we don't have the hurricanes, tornadoes and extreme flooding that many areas experience on a regular basis.

My six-foot-tall mother-in-law next to a snowbank in northern Maine.

Of course, with the unknowns brought on by climate change (and our denial of it), all of that could change in the future.

But this year, at least according to produce guy and self-described Fruit Monkey, Josh Alsberg of Rubinette Produce, we can look forward to spring things like nettles, wild mushrooms and fiddleheads, plus herbs like sorrel and chervil, to start appearing as early as March, a mere eight weeks away.

Until then? "Roots and citrus!" says Alsberg.

Beets, yes, but don't waste those greens!

By which he means colorful varieties of beets—red, gold and stripey Chioggia—as well as the knobby Gilfeather turnip, a half-rutabaga, half-turnip hybrid that is a favorite of local chefs, tracing its lineage to Gilfeather Farm in Wardsboro, Vermont. Rutabagas, turnips, celery root and storage potatoes will also be appearing on farmers' market tables over the next few weeks, as will onions, kohlrabi and locally grown white and purple daikon. Winter radishes will also be available, like the watermelon radishes from Black Locust Farm and black radishes from several farms, including Sauvie Island Organics.

There are plenty of seasonal greens available, too. Think mustard greens, cabbages, beet greens, kale, collards, local chicories and gorgeous, deep red heads of radicchio. Gathering Together Farm and Groundwork Organics are growing Kalettes, purple-green, rapini-like florets that are a hybrid of kale and brussels sprouts, with a flavor that shines when roasted or stir-fried.

On the citrus front, I have big bowls of tangerines and Meyer lemons sitting on my counter right now, as fragrant as any store-bought potpourri or essential oils (and not as toxic to pets) and they're edible, to boot! The Meyer lemons will be used for my yearly batch of preserved lemons, to be parceled out in savory dishes, relishes and salads over the next few months, and if I can manage to spare a few, maybe some lemon sorbet.

Alsberg is in hog heaven right now, gleeful at the prospect of citrus season. Several varieties of mandarin oranges and tangerines are beginning to appear, varieties like Shasta Gold, Murcott, Pixies and the teensy Kishu, with blood oranges, navel oranges and Cara Cara navel oranges rolling in now. He's also starting to see a rainbow of grapefruit on distributors' lists, and said that word on the street is that the white grapefruit called Mellow Gold is super juicy and sweeter than most. Pomegranates and kumquats have been in stores since Christmas, and we should be seeing local kiwis making an appearance soon.

Kabocha squash is a personal fave.

Winter squash is starting to clear out of his lists, but he said local growers should have plenty of kabocha, Kuri, butternut and acorn squash through mid-February. After that, though, he warns that the squash you see in stores will be from Mexico. "Enjoy them now" is his mantra. Look for recipes in my Squash Chronicles series.

Rubinette Produce is a vendor inside Providore Fine Foods, an advertiser on this blog. Josh gives his advice quarterly on what's coming in from local farms and what we can expect to see on store shelves.

Early Spring's Brilliant Flavors: Beet Risotto, Kale Raab

Spring has come early to the fields of the Willamette Valley, evidenced by the bins of sweet green things I saw while wandering the aisles of the farmers' market in Hillsdale last weekend. Sweet because as the nightly temperatures dip into the low 40s, the plants in the field produce sugars that act as antifreeze to protect them until temperatures warm during the day.

Love that color!

You'll taste it in the carrots—I'm only buying carrots with tops attached these days so I know they're fresh from the fields, not woody from storage—and the brassicas, especially the young flowering sprouts called raab, rabe, broccolini or rapini. It's prime time for beets, too, in all colors of the rainbow, with their firm stalks and healthy leaves that make a terrific sautéed side dish to whatever you're serving for dinner.

This beet risotto, with beets just tender from simmering with the rice and infusing it with their signature brilliant color, makes a standout main dish served with sautéed market greens of any persuasion (we like to sizzle some bacon to grease the pan), or as a gorgeous side with any grilled meat.

Beet Risotto

2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 c. arborio or carnaroli rice
3 med. red beets, chopped in 1/2" dice
5 c. stock, either vegetable or chicken
Salt to taste
Parmesan

Heat butter or margarine in large saucepan or deep skillet over medium heat. When it melts, add onion and sauté until translucent. Add garlic and stir to heat, then add rice. Sauté for 2 minutes, then add beets and a ladle of stock. Stir until liquid is absorbed, then add another ladle of stock. Repeat, stirring frequently to keep it from sticking, until the rice is creamy but still has a slight crunch and the beets are tender, about 20 minutes or so. Add salt to your taste and serve with parmesan in a bowl for sprinkling.

Drink Your Beets With This Beet Margarita

The other evening a friend was having a couple of pals over for drinks and snacks to celebrate her fabulous new job. The plan was to have margaritas, but the weather forecast had turned from sun to clouds. Our e-mail exchange follows:

Friend: "Maybe we should do wine rather than drinks. Might be past margarita season."

Me: "What??? Past margarita season? Nevah!"

Friend: "OK. You convinced me. There’s a new bottle of tequila in the freezer…"

And with that, the clouds parted, the sun came out and our evening on her deck (with margaritas) was saved. Hallelujah.

I first had a beet margarita, oddly enough, at Dayna McErlean's Yakuza. Known for its Asian-influenced cuisine, it might seem counterintuitive to feature a traditional Mexican cocktail on the bar menu, but this beet-infused version paired quite well with its Asian flavors and ingredients. Yakuza serves it on the rocks; I prefer mine up in a martini glass. Whichever way you go, its spectacular deep ruby color will garner oohs and aahs, and the bright flavor will complement just about anything—and, for me, any kind of weather—you choose to serve it with.

Beet Margarita

For the infusion:
2 medium-sized red beets
1 bottle tequila*

For the margarita:
Kosher salt (optional)
2 oz. beet-infused tequila
1 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice
1 oz. simple syrup
1/2 tsp. triple sec or Cointreau
Lime slice or lime wedge for garnish

Peel and slice beets. The thinner the slices, the better the infusion. Put the beets in a large non-reactive bowl or glass container and pour tequila over them. Cover the container and refrigerate for about a week. 

If you choose to make a salt rim on the glasses, take a wedge of lime and slice it once crosswise through the flesh, stopping before piercing the peel. Put the cut wedge over the rim of the glass and run it around the edge. This gives the salt a wet surface to stick to. Pour a mound of salt onto a plate and, holding the glass at an angle, push the rim into the mound and twirl the glass to coat the rim.

Fill cocktail shaker half full of ice. Add tequila, lime juice, simple syrup and triple sec and shake well. Strain into chilled martini or, if serving on ice, a rocks glass. Float lime slice on top or squeeze a wedge and drop into the glass.

Beet Risotto and Beet Greens Make a Meal

With evening temperatures dipping down into the low 20s during a recent cold snap, it was even too cold for an intrepid griller like Dave to light up the Weber. I mean, he's out there every Christmas roasting a bird on the fire, but this cold was chilling even his New England roots. I'd just picked up some boneless pork chops on sale in the butcher's case, so it was time to give pan-roasting* a try. Plus turning on the oven would help heat the house and give our chugging, decrepit furnace a break.

Beet risotto in process.

I was walking by the produce bins on the way to the cash register thinking I'd pick up some potatoes and kale to complete the meal when I spied big bunches of beets for $2.99. The best part was that the leaves and stems weren't in the usual sad, tattered state, but were waving at me like a traffic flagger to slow down and look.

Sautéing the greens.

Beets and greens meant I could have dinner on the table for a total of $12, a great deal to feed three adults. With rice in the pantry and chicken stock in the freezer for a beet risotto, and the greens sautéed to make a bed for the chops, a little over an hour later we were sitting down to a dinner fit for company. The nearly iridescent color of the risotto nicely played off the greens and chops, but even without the pork this would make a great meal all by itself, and make it an even better deal!

Beet Risotto

2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 c. arborio or carnaroli rice
3 med. red beets, chopped in 1/2" dice
5 c. chicken stock
Salt to taste
Parmesan

Heat butter or margarine in large saucepan or deep skillet over medium heat. When it melts, add onion and sauté until translucent. Add garlic and stir to heat, then add rice. Sauté for 2 minutes, then add beets and a ladle of stock. Stir until liquid is absorbed, then add another ladle of stock. Repeat, stirring frequently to keep it from sticking, until the rice is creamy but still has a slight crunch, about 20 minutes or so. Add salt to your taste and serve with parmesan in a bowl for sprinkling.

* * *

Beet Greens

2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch beet greens and stems
Salt to taste

Separate stems from greens. Chop stems into 1/4" slices. Chop greens into 1/2" slices.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-low heat. When it shimmers, add garlic and sauté briefly to heat. Add stem pieces and sauté until tender. Add greens and sauté until wilted. Salt to taste and serve.

* Basic method here, though I'm still working on it.

Righteous Roots: Beet Salad Can't Be Beat

What's your favorite meal to take camping or cook for friends when you're away from home? For contributor Jim Dixon of Real Good Food, it includes a hearty spread of roasted beets and garlic with a Middle-Eastern twist.

For the last 10 years a bunch of us have spent the big game weekend skiing (could be longer, but none of us can remember for sure). I don’t really follow football, and I’d much rather take advantage of the uncrowded slopes than watch television all day. But since we’re a bunch of old guys we get tired and are usually worn out by 3 o’clock. So even after a drink in the bar and driving from Bachelor down to the house we rent in Sunriver, there’s still lots of football to see.

Après-ski plate o' goodness!

Most of us like to cook, and we eat well while we’re there. My night for dinner was Thursday, and I made pimento cheese, spicy chicken wings, porky red beans, smothered cabbage, winter squash gratin, Cajun-style eggplant rice dressing and these amazing puréed beets.

Jerusalem Puréed Beets

Adapted from the Ottolenghi-Tamimi cookbook Jerusalem, this dish has become one of my favorite things to eat. It works as either a salad or dip for pita crusty bread, or even tortilla chips, although it’s thick enough you’ll need to provide some kind of spreading utensil.

Start by roasting 4-5 red beets by removing the long root and greens and placing them in a small roasting pan or Pyrex dish. Leave them unpeeled and cook at 400° for about an hour or until a knife goes in easily. Let cool enough to handle, then peel (really roasting like this, as opposed to the wrap-in-foil method, leaves the beets dry so the skins don’t just slide off; I use a sharp knife to cut off the outer layer of the beet).

Cut the beets into quarters, then combine in the food processor with about a cup of yogurt (the book calls for Greek style, but I’ve used regular plain yogurt), 3-4 cloves of roughly chopped garlic, 3-4 chopped dates, a jalapeno with seeds and membrane, about a quarter cup of extra virgin olive oil, at least a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of the Middle Eastern spice blend called za’atar (roughly equal parts ground sumac, sesame seeds, thyme and oregano). Process until completely pureed.

You can eat it like this and it’s good, but even better is the garnish of about a half cup of lightly toasted and chopped filberts (hazelnuts to non-Oregonians), some soft goat cheese torn into small bits and scatttered on top and a couple of thinly sliced green onions. Add another good shake of za’atar and a healthy drizzle of extra virgin, too.

In Season NW: Learning to Love Weeds

Growing up, anything that was growing in the yard that wasn't identifiable as grass was declared a weed and was summarily yanked or sprayed or otherwise executed on the spot. Not to say that in our zeal we didn't occasionally rip out one of my mother's prize peonies or a ranunculus or two. And all of us knew from repeated finger-shaking lectures that all weeds were poisonous and would cause painful convulsions followed by death if eaten. Period.

That impression was only fortified later on when there was a flurry of dandelion winemaking resulting in a foul-tasting brew that wasn't even worth drinking for the buzz from the alcohol. So imagine my confusion when I visited my soon-to-be-relatives in Maine and they served up a pile of little green swirls they called fiddleheads, the tiny furled fronds of ferns that were gathered next to icy streams with exotic names like Meduxnekeag.

Suffice it to say that from then on I put childish things behind me and became fascinated with all edible "weeds" to the point where, if I saw some growing in a parking strip, I'd stop dead in my tracks, checking for any telltale signs of marking by dogs, and pick and eat one then and there, much to my son's chagrin.

One of these, claytonia perfoliata or miner's lettuce (above left), is now being grown by several vendors at the farmers' markets in much more sanitary surroundings, and I try to pick up several bunches when I see them. Recently they formed the bed of a beet salad that I served with a pork and couscous tagine, providing a colorful contrast as well as a satisfying crunchiness to the sweet richness of the beets.

Roasted Beet Salad with Miner's Lettuce and Honey Mustard Dressing

For the salad:
3 medium-sized beets
1 bunch miner's lettuce or other leafy greens

For the dressing:
Juice of 1 large lemon
1 1/2 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. whole-grain mustard
1/3 c. extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 400°. Wash beets to remove any dirt clinging to them. Wrap each one, drizzled with a bit of olive oil, in a piece of aluminum foil and place in small roasting pan or glass baking dish. Roast for approx. 1 hour, testing occasionally with a fork. When tender but not mushy remove from oven and cool. Cut in 1/2" or smaller cubes and place in medium-sized mixing bowl.

Combine the lemon juice, honey, mustard, and olive oil in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake until well combined. Alternatively, place the lemon juice, honey, and mustard in a bowl. Whisk to combine. Add olive oil in a slow, steady stream until dressing is emulsified.

Pour dressing over beets and mix to combine. This can be done ahead and refrigerated until ready to serve. Make a bed of the washed and dried miner's lettuce or other greens, top with a pile of the cubed beets and serve.

Unbeatable Beet Salad

Pentimento is an Italian phrase for the reappearance in a painting of a design that has been painted over, a shadow of the past that shimmers under the surface. I'm not sure what it is, but autumn is like that for me. Maybe it's the falling leaves closing another chapter on a year of memories.

Last night was an evening with friends that capped a season of memorable gatherings and will go down as one of our all-time faves. Meant as a tribute to my recent foray into the Basque culture of Boise, it was an evening of great food, wonderful wines, much laughter and lively conversation. And for feeding a crowd, it doesn't get better than paella on the grill made with a slightly spicy chorizo from the Basque Market in Boise, along with chicken thighs, mussels and local green beans.

It would have been an ideal one-dish meal had I not been swept away by the beets at Persephone Farm's stand at the Hollywood Farmers' Market. After roasting, their sweetness, not to mention their glorious fall coloring, was the ideal compliment to the smoky heartiness of the paella.

Fall Beet Salad

3 lbs. beets, ideally different colors
Olive oil
Aged balsamic vinegar
Kosher salt
Fresh-ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400°. Place washed and dried beets on square of heavy-duty aluminum foil (three or four together if small, individually if large) and drizzle with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. Roast for45 min. to one hour till slightly tender. Unwrap and cool.

Peel beets, then slice thinly by hand or in mandoline and arrange in rows on platter. Sprinkle with olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and serve.